Ruskies to pay Monthly Fee to play Starcraft 2

[ArcherofAiur]

To clarify, this is the Russian pricing model you are talking about. This is a very special case for Russia only. All other European versions will be without a monthly fee.

For the Russian version the monthly fee also only applies after the free months that come with the box are over and are only for the online version of the game. They can then purchase online game time or upgrade to a full EU access, that will grant them the same access as all other European players have without further monthly fees.
-Xordiah

This is no doubt payback for the Cold War. And they thought they got off easy




*initiate activision ranting*

[pure.Wasted]

As a Ruskie born and bred, I'm torn between being amused and outraged.

"Hey guys you know how you've been paying the same monthly fee as everyone else for WoW all this time? Well apparently hooking you up to the European servers just got more expensive... but only for StarCraft 2... or something. Whatever, logic's overrated, hand over them rubles!"

[GRUNT]

So how does this work, exactly? Can they buy the game cheaper than the rest of the world but with limited online capabilities, but can be upgraded? Or do they have to pay the same price as the rest of the world, then an additional upgrade fee on top of that?

I wonder why this is the case for Russia. Is it that so much of the country's gaming population doesn't have internet access that Blizzard doesn't feel comfortable with Bnet 2.0 in that country?

[ArcherofAiur]

Remember 24 hours ago when people were complaining about a 10 dollar increase...

[Islandsnake]

As is standard, this is not that big of a deal at all. Russia has access to a cheaper version where they get a year of play time ish or they can buy the 59.99 version and have access to the EU version

From the TL thread -.-

Its not really a big deal at all o.0


Of course that is also an option that Russian players have. The subscription model is mainly for those players that would not be able to afford the European version. This will also give them the option of buying the less expensive game and then afterwards deciding that the game is worth upgrading to the European version and as such they will have access to European as well as the Russian servers.
RTS Community Team
Blizzard Europe







Hmm I shoulda let this go a few pages, I have much to learn

[pure.Wasted]

Oohhhhhhhh, I get it. Blizz actually wants to sell copies of the game, as opposed to hear about all the pirated versions of the game being sold! Yeah... given how popular pirating is over there, this actually makes a lot of sense. No longer outraged, still very highly amused.

I didn't even realize I'd been playing pirated games my entire childhood until I got to Canada and had to pay like $50 for a game. That was a bit of a reality check.


Oh Archer you sly dog. Trying to rile up another mob, huh?! We're onto you.

[Kimera757]

Link!

[Norfindel]

How much cheaper is the Russian version?

[Artanis]

How much cheaper is the Russian version?

The cheapest price is about 17 USD.

[Crazy_Jonny]

Ahhhh I get it, at first I was thinking - this is a warning from Blizzard, not to complain about the Price tag or the same thing that happens to Russia will happen to us.

But that would be silly.